Autonomy is defined in this journal as authentically endorsing your actions with the freedom to make choices in your own best interests, reflecting your own personal values, irrespective of external pressure.

Short version — you’re the boss of you.

Protecting your autonomy is related to an increased ability to self-regulate and increased authenticity in the expression of who you are.

Maintaining it in any relationship context is essential for the protection of your happiness, focus, and goals.

Losing it makes you vulnerable to manipulation and being taken for granted.

It means you give up everything you want to fill the bottomless pit of someone else’s pursuit of happiness.

Someone that will never be full on their own, so you’re signing up for a life-long mission of sacrifice.

This deficit-based model of interaction is not only unhealthy, but quickly becomes both codependent and toxic.

Instead, start putting your time and energy towards the things you believe in.

Start feeling obligated to yourself and owning what matters to you without expectation of approval or acceptance.

Close relationships can make it hard to balance healthy attachment with preservation of your own identity. Maintaining your independence in who you are and what you want isn’t often celebrated as a shining characteristic of relationship harmony. But it should be. Healthy relationships are established on the foundation of people having a mutual respect for one another’s autonomy. Sacrificing yourself for anyone else will only end in misery for everyone, and failure for the relationship. Protect your goals and your sanity by refusing to lose yourself in any relationship.

To learn more about how you can maintain your autonomy in relationships, and to get instant access to exclusive training videos, case studies, insider documents, and my private online network, get on the Escape Plan wait list.